The Conversation

Why the rescued Thai soccer team has ordained as Buddhist novice monks

Written by Andrew Alan Johnson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University

Members of the team who were rescued from a flooded cave prepare to be ordained to become Buddhist novices and monks.AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit

After their dramatic rescue from Nang Non cave, the Thai boys and their soccer coach have ordained as novice monks for a period of nine days, as a part of paying respect to the Thai Navy SEAL, Saman Gunan, who...

Natural selection in action: Hurricanes Irma and Maria affected island lizards

Written by Colin Donihue, Postdoctoral Fellow in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Holding on in hurricane-force winds.Colin Donihue, CC BY-ND

The Turks and Caicos anole is a small brown lizard found running through the undergrowth in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It’s an endemic species, meaning these few islands are the only place to find Anolis scriptus anywhere in the world. Despite the species being fairly common...

Los estudiantes multilingües en EEUU logran mejores resultados que nunca

Written by Karen D. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Education, Oregon State University

De acuerdo con un nuevo estudio, los estudiantes multilingües han progresado de forma constante en los últimos añosMonkey Business Images/Shutterstock

Entre 2003 y 2015, los estudiantes multilingües en EE UU mostraron dos o tres veces mayores progresos en lectura y matemáticas que los estudiantes que solo hablan...

Spiraling wildfire fighting costs are largely beyond the Forest Service's control

Written by Cassandra Moseley, Associate Vice President for Research and Research Professor , University of Oregon

Fighting wildfires with air tankers, like this one dropping fire retardant on the Willow Fire in California on September 2, 2015, is expensive and not always effective.USFS, CC BY

Just six months after the devastating Thomas Fire – the largest blaze in California’s history – was fully contained, the 2018 fire season is well under...

Truck drivers are overtired, overworked and underpaid

Written by Michael Belzer, Associate Professor, Economics, Wayne State University

More than half of all U.S. truck drivers exceed the federal limit of 60 hours per week.5m3photos/shutterstock.com

Research shows that economic pressure pushes drivers to work extremely long hours, contributing significantly to truck crashes.

A 2010 survey by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed that, on average,...

A turbulent future may be in store for US-Turkish relations

Written by Doga Ulas Eralp, Professorial Lecturer, American University School of International Service

Turkey’s June elections confirmed one important political reality in the country: The state always wins.

And that’s likely bad news for the future of Turkey’s long relationship with the United States.

I’m a scholar and practitioner of international conflict resolution who has studied Turkey and its relations with other...

What exactly is the point of the border?

Written by Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Governance, University of Washington

A 'no border wall' sign is held during a rally to oppose the wall the US government wants to build.AP Photo/Eric Gay

The past few weeks have seen widespread outrage over the Trump administration’s now-defunct policy of separating migrant families at the border. Four members of the president’s Homeland Security advisory council have...

New Mexico case should serve as wake-up call on school funding

Written by Derek W. Black, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina

A court has ruled that New Mexico isn't ensuring that its students get an adequate education.Lisa F. Young /shutterstock.com

A New Mexico trial court recently found that the state has been failing in its constitutional duty to ensure that all students receive an adequate education. The court ordered the state to come up with a fix by next April. In...

Artificial intelligence outperforms the repetitive animal tests in identifying toxic chemicals

Written by Thomas Hartung, Professor of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

These rats are in special cages for urine collection. Every year, millions of animals are used for testing chemicals that are used in industrial products.By unoL/shutterstock.com

Most consumers would be dismayed with how little we know about the majority of chemicals. Only 3 percent of industrial chemicals – mostly drugs and pesticides...

Why are there so many suckers? A neuropsychologist explains

Written by Stacey Wood, Professor of Psychology, Scripps College

Is it a scam?Tero Vesalainen/shutterstock.com

If you have a mailbox, you probably get junk mail. If you have an email account, you probably get spam. If you have a phone, you probably get robocalls.

Unwanted messages and solicitations bombard us on a regular basis. Most of us hit ignore or delete or toss junk mail in the trash knowing that these...